MotoGP Silverstone: Vinales contemplating rear tyre dilemma

Maverick Viñales is ‘satisfied’ with the fourth fastest time in qualifying after a set-up change after FP4 worked against him; reiterates importance of rear tyre choice for Sunday.

Maverick Viñales described himself as “satisfied” after he missed out on a front row starting berth at Silverstone, and believes rear tyre selection will be crucial in determining the results of Sunday’s race.

The 22-year old was quick throughout free practice, and stated he was ready to race after Friday’s two sessions, but a set-up change ahead of qualifying worked against him, leaving Viñales feeling far from comfortable aboard the M1 in the 15-minute Q2.

Fourth place and 0.4s off the pole position time was an acceptable result for the Catalan, who sits 24 points behind title leader Marc Marquez in the title race, and his attentions are now turned to ensuring he reaches the optimum set-up for Sunday’s race.

“For sure you always look for something more, but I'm quite satisfied,” he said. “Honestly, we did a good improvement in FP4. I'm quite happy about the tyres. We were riding with hard, soft, trying to understand the way to go tomorrow on the race.

“But it seems very difficult to know which tyre is going to work, so we have to pay a lot of attention to what the others do, and also our box and also inside Tech 3, because normally they choose really good in Tech 3. So we have to be ready for everything.

“After FP4, we modified a little bit the bike, trying to find something more, trying to go under the 2m 00. But in the end, we didn't improve the bike, we got a little bit worse, and I didn't feel so great just to push over the limit. So I'm quite satisfied for that, even without pushing at the limit, I'm still there, and I'm happy to be fast in FP4.

“What I'm looking for is for trying to make sure the degradation is not so big, because in Austria it was really, really big, in the last part of the race, the spinning was amazing, so we are going to try to choose a tire that avoids more spinning at the end of the race.

“It's going to be difficult, because sometimes you think it is one tyre, but it is another one. So we want to try to make the correct choice, and try to find the tyre that is quite constant throughout the race.

“For sure between the soft and the hard tyre, there's going to be a lot of difference in the first laps, because the soft has much more initial grip. But let's see. For sure tomorrow, we have to be careful on the riding style, trying to save the tyre until the last laps.”

Was he surprised by Marquez’s outright pace? “Well, as I said, we didn't improve the bike so much,” he replied. “We tried to improve from FP4 to qualifying, but we got worse, and I could not push. But I think it was the lap time to do, and the lap time to looking forward in qualifying, because all the lap times are really fast. But anyway, in FP4, I felt really great on the bike and really constant. So happy for that.”

Asked about the changes to the M1 since a one-day Misano test, Viñales added, “They are working, well, but we are trying to improve and improve, and from FP4 to the qualifying, we tried to improve but we got worse, so maybe it was too much.

“So we just need to come back and try to fix a little bit the bike for tomorrow, especially for the last laps of the race, because at the moment, it's really difficult to keep a good race pace. Talking about traction control.”